California to explore open source software

In its recently published performance review, the California government said that it will "explore" opens ource alternatives to save money on software,s oftware maintenance and renewal. "The state should more extensively consider use of open source software, which can in many cases provide the same functionality as closed source software at a much lower total cost of ownership," the report states.

Reasons for the decision were also that open source would be "more secure due to the extreme scrutiny of the source code before being deployed", that the software could be "run in multiple environments" and that the software may be "less vulnerable to viruses."